Tide turning for Weld after frustrating first half of the season

Trying to quantify what makes the Galway festival tick year after year is not easily explained. Attempting to come up with the solution has defied many for a long time.

Where it comes in the year, smack in the middle of the summer holidays, has a lot to do with it. So has tradition, with the Plate and the Hurdle long established among the more coveted prizes in the jumping calendar. It is a mix that isn't replicated at any other meeting and whatever the combination is, it works.

One aspect of the week-long marathon that continues to fascinate is how many of the lesser races over the seven days are viewed with an importance far above what those events, and most of the horses who compete in them, actually are in the general scheme of things. Punters latch on to those races, and try to find winners, with a fervour that such races never generate elsewhere.